Grappling with the complexities of gender transition interruptions: Toward conceptual clarity on "detransitioning" experiences.

Abstract

Introduction: The existing literature on gender transition interruptions for transgender/nonbinary (TNB) people (what is frequently termed "detransitioning") lacks conceptual clarity and precision, resulting in conflictual findings, misinterpretations, and the weaponization of the literature to support harmful policies aimed at limiting TNB individuals' access to gender-affirming care.

Aims: We conducted a review of the existing literature on gender transition interruptions and propose a conceptual framework to address the current weaknesses in the extant scholarship, provide better conceptual clarity, and offer suggestions for improving future research.

Methods: The paper uses a conceptual review and critique of the extant research including scholarship on transition-related desistence, regret, and gender transition interruptions (i.e. "detransitions").

Main outcome measures: The lay understanding and, at times, the scholarly understanding of gender transition interruptions from the existing literature is most frequently collapsed under the idea of "detransitioning." This is true even though few studies actually examine the experiences of individuals who transition from TNB to the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. There is significant conflation of findings about different types of transition interruption experiences with transition interruption experiences that encapsulate a true identity shift from transgender to cisgender. This conceptual slippage and misinterpretation is used politically to weaponize the existing scholarship.

Results: The paper proposes a conceptual framework of gender transition interruptions that outlines the conceptual nuances including identification of desistance, (6) subcategories of transition-related regret, (2) subcategories of adaptive gender transition interruptions, gender recalibration, embodiment goal attainment, other transition interruption, and gender identity recission.

Conclusion: The proposed conceptual framework details the nuances in the various types of gender transition interruptions suggested, and utilizes the extant scholarship to justify the proposed framework.